Teachers

Gary O’Toole

Founder & Principal Drum Tutor
Gary is a unique, exciting and dynamic performer, and has built an extensive touring and recording history; playing in many varied musical styles worldwide for over 25 years. He has been named as a prominent drummer in several well known publications including Modern Drummer and Rhythm magazines. After many years of experience teaching privately and with larger establishments – including among them Drum Tech and Thames Valley University, at which he co-wrote the curriculum – Gary founded his own school.

Sam Weston

Bass
Sam Weston is a performer, session musician and tutor based in North London. He has worked on over 700 gigs and recordings since 2013, performing throughout the UK and Europe in a variety of styles. Bass has been his primary instrument for 10 years, and he has been gigging professionally for 5 of these.

Sam received a First Class BA in popular music from the University of Liverpool, and he has been teaching alongside his performance career since graduating in 2014. As well as tutoring bass guitar in one-to-one and group sessions, he has taught full-band rockschool classes for Arts First, ArtsOne and corporate team building company All In Good Time.

Nick Varey

Guitar, Vocals, Piano

Nick picked up the guitar and was self tutored from the age of 12. By the age of 13 he had put bands together throughout his local area and was teaching by 15. At a young age he starred in Les Miserables as Jean ValJean and appeared as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar. Nick studied at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) and received his Music BA degree from the Institute of Contemporary Music (ICMP).

Jack Ashley

Drums, Audio/Music Tech
A multi-instrumentalist who found his home on the drums, Jack has over 20 years of live experience under his belt, 18 of that being behind a drum kit. Learning drums, piano, brass instruments and guitar from a young age nurtured a strong foundation of melody, harmony, theory and awareness of music as a whole. This was then built upon with years of touring the UK and Europe playing in a variety of styles and studying under some of the country’s top teachers.